Category: History

Italian History

  • Water from a Stone

    Back in the 1890’s, the city of Siena, Italy, had a problem. The city had outgrown the wells it used to supply drinking water to its people. And…

    Those wells often contained contaminated water that produced chronic outbreaks of cholera and typhus.

    Siena clearly needed a new water supply.

    The answer lay 86 km (54 miles) to the south…on Monte Amiata.

    Monte Amiata lies across the Val d’ Orcia from Pienza…a 5,700 ft high volcano that last erupted somewhere between 180,000 and 300,000 years ago.

    There is still enough of a molten core that Amiata is the home to two thermal baths…Bagno San Fillipo and the ancient Roman spa of Bagno Vignoni.

    But something else happened since that last volcanic eruption eons ago. Some of the rock inside Amiata fissured, and those cracks became filled with rain and melted snow.

    The city of Siena tested the water that flows from the natural springs on the flanks of Amiata in 1895. It proved bacteria-free, plentiful, and tasty.

    So the city of Siena went to the small village of Vivo d’ Orcia (pop. 600) to find a way to get its spring water to Siena.

    Vivo d’ Orcia is surrounded by chestnut forests and…a little higher up the mountain…vast stands of beech trees.

    At an elevation of 1,007 m (3,300 ft.) we found…seemingly very much out of place…a cement wall with a small door.

    The sign by the door read Acquadotto Sorgente Ermicciolo (Aquaduct Sourced at Ermicciolo).

    We knew the ancient Romans were famous for building aqueducts…but 19th century Italians?

    Our guide, Fabio Rossi…at the left in this picture…showed us what was behind that small door.

    Water gushing from a natural spring deep inside the bowels of Mt. Amiata.

    The city of Siena consumes 3.6 million liters of water a minute. This spring produces 9.6 million liters a minute.

    Getting the water from the spring (elev. 3,300 ft) to the bottom of the valley (elev. 938 ft) was not a problem.

    Getting it under the hilltop town of Montalcino and across the Orcia and Ombrone rivers…all without pumping stations…would prove to be more of an engineering challenge.

    An 87 km-long tunnel would provide the solution.

    In 1908, after 6 years of construction, the project was completed…and fresh water from Mt. Amiata was delivered to Porta San Marco in Siena…

    …which means today when tourists visit Siena’s main attraction, the Campo….

    …and take a drink from the Fonte Gaia (Fountain of Joy), they will be drinking fresh water from Monte Amiata.

  • The Birth of the Violin

    Cremona is a city of 70,000 in northern Italy.

    In the middle of the 16th century it started a revolution…

    … in music.

    During the Renaissance, stringed musical instruments looked like this…

    Then in the middle of the 16th century, this man changed all that.

    His name was Andrea Amati. He is credited with building the first modern violin.

    This is violin he built in 1566.

    Andrea had two sons and three grandsons…who also became master violin makers.

    This spawned two and a half centuries of exceptional instrument makers and put the small city of Cremona in the forefront of the European music scene.

    Three generations later, Antonio Stradivari was born. He revolutionized the way violins were made.

    He discovered making the back of a violin from spruce improved the sound quality.

    He redesigned the neck of the violin to make it easier to play.

    And he discovered that if he made the “f hole” on the right side of the strings just millemeters longer than the one on the left the sound improved.

    In his lifetime, Stradivari made nearly 1100 stringed instruments…including this cello (made in 1700).

    They are so cherished for their exceptional sound quality, nearly half of them are still in use today.

    All of the violins and cellos seen here are now housed in the Cremona Violin Museum.

    This room, where the best of the best are on display, is called “the Treasure Box.”

    It contains violins made by several generations of Amatis, several generations of Stradivaris, as well as Guareris, Rugeris, and Bergonzis.

    Forty-one violin-makers in all.

    Several of the tools from the old workshops have been saved…

    …as have several of the original patterns Stradivari used to make his instruments.

    The city of Cremona has preserved the memory of these great artisans with public statues and piazzas renamed in their honor.

    Every three years, the museum sponsors a violin-makers’ “Olympics.” The last one, held in 2024, had 315 entrants from 37 different countries.

    While there were numerous awards handed out, it’s notable that there was no gold medal granted in either the violin or viola category.

    Today, Cremona remains a center for the manufacture of stringed instruments.

    There are nine shops where a serious musician can purchase a custom-made violin.

    Roger’s interest in Cremona’s violin-making tradition was triggered by the 1998 film, “The Red Violin.” It is available to rent on Prime Video, Apple TV, or Fandango.